The Moment

9|15|09: Washington

Ben Bernanke uttered the words after a speech at the Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank. Strobe Talbott, the Brookings president, had asked the Federal Reserve chairman about the employment outlook. It took Bernanke 417 words to answer him, and his basic message was that the outlook wasn't so good. But along the way, he said two things that made front-page headlines the world over. "I've seen some agreement among the forecasting community at this point that we are in a recovery" was the first, and "From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point" was the...